Impact: This week started off to be one of the most frustrating weeks of technology ever. Monday was the first day of summer school and everything seemed to be great. We spent the last two hours of class making sure that all usernames and passwords were correct and students could get into Plato. I also walked them through what they had to complete by Wednesday morning. (In advance I made a fake learner so I could see exactly what they were seeing.) Then on Tuesday it all went downhill. I first started to get emails from my kids that Plato wasn’t working and they were getting kicked off the site. Then I had kids email me that they spent hours watching the same lesson but the program was not checking them off as completing it. If the students do not complete the lesson entirely they cannot move on to anything else. When I called Plato support they told me the site was down and that they would send me an email when it was back up- that was at 3:00 pm. At 9:30 pm I finally get an email that the program was working. I could not expect my kids to have completed five hours of work when the system was down for six!!! When my kids came in on Wednesday some were extremely frustrated- which I totally understood. We spent the last hour of class making sure all the kids could get on and see what they should have seen.
IN less than one hour after school got out I started to get emails again and tried to help the kids the best I could. I got to the point I told the kids to call Plato support because I could not help them anymore on my end. A couple of the kids admitted they were too nervous to call. I had to remember what I was like in tenth grade. Would I have made the phone call or would I have asked my parents? Many of my kids do not come from very supportive homes so it is all on them. On Friday morning, a student emailed me that he ended up calling Plato and they were able to help him out. He also told me that someone answered the phone right away and they were very nice. The problem was the settings on his computer. I told him I was proud of him because it is not easy to ask for help, especially when you have no idea who is going to be on the other end of the phone.
Intent: Technology is great, but it can have its ups and downs. As I reflect on this past week I realized that many of my kids do not know how to problem solve. When technology doesn’t work the correct way they freak out. The students who did end up calling support were able to get all their issues worked out but the students who did not- well they will be either be working all weekend long or not complete it.
I have realized that I also could have prepared the students better. Since I have used Plato for Credit Recovery the last two years I have had very little issues with it. Yet again, the students use the school computers which are set up specifically for Plato. If I was to do this during the school year I would make sure to have a manual to help my kids solve the problems. I am calling Plato to see if they have a user manual so if the issues are their personal computer settings they can figure them out. In addition all students will be given the Plato support number and told that if I can’t help them they are going to have to put on their big boy and big girl pants and make some phone calls or fail the class.
Description: Using Plato for Summer School
Impact: This week started off to be one of the most frustrating weeks of technology ever. Monday was the first day of summer school and everything seemed to be great. We spent the last two hours of class making sure that all usernames and passwords were correct and students could get into Plato. I also walked them through what they had to complete by Wednesday morning. (In advance I made a fake learner so I could see exactly what they were seeing.) Then on Tuesday it all went downhill. I first started to get emails from my kids that Plato wasn’t working and they were getting kicked off the site. Then I had kids email me that they spent hours watching the same lesson but the program was not checking them off as completing it. If the students do not complete the lesson entirely they cannot move on to anything else. When I called Plato support they told me the site was down and that they would send me an email when it was back up- that was at 3:00 pm. At 9:30 pm I finally get an email that the program was working. I could not expect my kids to have completed five hours of work when the system was down for six!!! When my kids came in on Wednesday some were extremely frustrated- which I totally understood. We spent the last hour of class making sure all the kids could get on and see what they should have seen.
IN less than one hour after school got out I started to get emails again and tried to help the kids the best I could. I got to the point I told the kids to call Plato support because I could not help them anymore on my end. A couple of the kids admitted they were too nervous to call. I had to remember what I was like in tenth grade. Would I have made the phone call or would I have asked my parents? Many of my kids do not come from very supportive homes so it is all on them. On Friday morning, a student emailed me that he ended up calling Plato and they were able to help him out. He also told me that someone answered the phone right away and they were very nice. The problem was the settings on his computer. I told him I was proud of him because it is not easy to ask for help, especially when you have no idea who is going to be on the other end of the phone.
Intent: Technology is great, but it can have its ups and downs. As I reflect on this past week I realized that many of my kids do not know how to problem solve. When technology doesn’t work the correct way they freak out. The students who did end up calling support were able to get all their issues worked out but the students who did not- well they will be either be working all weekend long or not complete it.
I have realized that I also could have prepared the students better. Since I have used Plato for Credit Recovery the last two years I have had very little issues with it. Yet again, the students use the school computers which are set up specifically for Plato. If I was to do this during the school year I would make sure to have a manual to help my kids solve the problems. I am calling Plato to see if they have a user manual so if the issues are their personal computer settings they can figure them out. In addition all students will be given the Plato support number and told that if I can’t help them they are going to have to put on their big boy and big girl pants and make some phone calls or fail the class.